READING OF THE PUBLIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16496, 23 March 1917, Page 6

READING OF THE PUBLIC.

DOMINION LIBRARIES. FOUR CENTRES COMPARED

Reporting to the. City Council last \ night upon. a recent visit to the public libraries in the South, ; the chief librarian, Mr. J. Barr, gave ; some interesting comparisons between those of Auckland and the other three chief . centres. All four had very good reference .;-, libraries, the;. Auckland public .library being tho ilargest,':- with a stock modestly ' estimated -; at : 37,466 volumes, which, with the Leys Institute, 11,283 volumes, : and : : branch : libraries added to this number, made a total of 49,351 volumes. ! Christchurch :. was the next : largest with 20,620 volumes. . Wellington had 17,574 volumes, and Dunedin, the youngest of the libraries under review, had 7632 . volumes. The ; attendances :■" at the Auckland library were the highest, and, in point of quality of stock Auckland also came first. The report gave details of papers arid; magazines supplied at the four: libraries,;;) stating: incidentally that tho Auckland room for this section required improvement. -; ? Referring to the lending departments, the report stated that : all ; four library systerns .were well equipped in that respect, but the ; methods of administration were not Similar. At Auckland and Christchurch the ~ subscription was the same, namely, • 10s per annum; at Wellington '. it was ,-• ss, > while \at ; Dunedin > books might '"■ be ■) borrowed •'; free. The largest single library was ' Christchurch, with a stock of 19,858 ...volumes; Wellington central library: came next with) a stock of 16,054, followed by -Auckland: central \ library \ with ' ; 15,390, and 'Dunedin) with' 14,452 volumes. )>;lf::' tho); branch libraries of Wellington and Auckland were added to the previous figures, Auckland came first with a stock of 29,793 volumes,\ and Wellington followed with 28,754. As,' however, the Auckland) figures 1 included I the juvenile sections, and tho Wellington I fitrures did not, Wellington took a premier place in point. of stock. ' ■ U) The; issues from; the : ; lending : libraries, ■ ! exclusive of the juvenile sections, were :— Wellington, : including Newtown branch, 151,983 volumes; • Dunedin, 137,387 ' volumes; Christchurch, -i 99,677 .volumes,: and Auckland, including the Leys Institute -and tho branch ;;; libraries, ' 90,601 i volumes, In respect ;of the issues from the lending department, Auckland was remarkably? far .-,: below the ■ other) libraries. The reason was very hard to -determine. Except for the central library, the other libraries wero well arranged. The ; class of book ■; was ;as ? good Kas ;•; any))) of )) the southern libraries. The large number of small : . book-shop libraries • throughout ' the' city was perhaps one of the reasons why the public libraries were not so' well patronised as they ought to bo, and it was a matter for regret that the libraries were not taken advantage of as they might be.; In Auckland the proportion ::of fiction to, the ; total .' books lent . out was ;. 68.3 per cent. Excluding unbound magazines and juvenile . literature, • it ; was .88.5iper -cent.: At Christchurch :it . was : 68. per cent, and 83.8 per cent, respectively. :At Dunedin,'. where no magazines were issued for home) reading,' the ; percentajp of) fiction- issued was 86.7 per cent.